Königssee

The Königssee is regarded as one of the cleanest and, at up to 190 metres, deepest lakes in Germany. Embedded between the steeply rising walls of the Watzmann massif and the Hagengebirge, it looks like a Nordic fjord that has strayed into the Alps.

What makes the Königssee special

• Electric boats since 1909: For conservation reasons only quiet electric boats operate on the lake, which is why the water has drinking-water quality.
• St. Bartholomä: The striking pilgrimage church with the red onion domes on the Hirschau peninsula is the lake’s landmark.
• Echo at the Echo Wall: By tradition the boatmen play a flugelhorn melody halfway across, and the multiple echo from the steep walls is impressive.
• Obersee & Röthbachfall: Behind St. Bartholomä you reach on foot the quieter Obersee and the Röthbach Falls, at around 470 m Germany’s highest waterfall.

Good to know

The Malerwinkel (‚painters’ corner‘) on the north shore offers the classic postcard view and can be reached in a few minutes even without a boat trip. The boat service runs year-round; in high summer an early arrival is advisable because of the crowds and parking situation.

Note: here the Alpentreff team adds its own impressions, current prices and insider tips.

Background & History

The Königssee looks like a piece of Scandinavia that has strayed into the Bavarian Alps: a narrow fjord up to 190 metres deep, hemmed in between the vertical east face of the Watzmann and the rocky escarpments of the Hagengebirge. It is precisely this narrowness that produces the famous echo, which the boatmen have for generations sent across the water with a flugelhorn melody , it returns several times from the walls.

Above the lake towers the Watzmann, around which one of the best-known legends of the mountains is woven: a tyrannical king who, with his wife and children, was turned to stone as punishment. The red-and-white pilgrimage church of St. Bartholomä on the western shore, built in the 17th century by the prince-provosts of Berchtesgaden, was long reachable only by water and is to this day the emblem of this secluded world. Since 1978 the Berchtesgaden National Park has protected the entire region; its guiding principle ‚let nature be nature‘ keeps the valley heads so unspoilt that behind the Obersee, with the Röthbach Falls, Germany’s highest waterfall lies hidden.